What You Can Expect
For more than 50 years, the renowned HBS Agribusiness Seminar has explored the business, economic, technological, environmental, and social issues that impact the agribusiness industry, providing timely knowledge and an essential cross-industry, global perspective. In 2012, this unique seminar returns to China, offered by HBS in collaboration with the School of Management, Fudan University in Shanghai. The program is designed to help agribusiness industry leaders confidently address a daunting set of challenges, take advantage of emerging opportunities for growth, and explore new routes for securing their company's future.
The program takes place in China at HBS's state-of-the-art meeting space in the Pudong District of Shanghai. The world’s largest agricultural producer and one of today’s most important agricultural importers, China reflects some of the most significant issues facing the industry today: an expanding population, shifts to urban living and more resource-intensive diets, constraints in cropland and water, and growing concern over the sustainability of high-intensity production models. The seminar addresses these global challenges, examining their potential impact on industry players, governments, and society.
Like the annual Boston-based session of the Agribusiness Seminar, the 2012 Shanghai session offers the expertise of HBS faculty, illuminating case studies, a global participant base, and a lively exchange of ideas that will inspire and reenergize you. The smaller scale of this session, however, offers you a rare opportunity for in-depth networking with peers from a range of enterprises and with presenters who conduct groundbreaking research in their fields.
Improving Your Organization's Performance
Taking a forward-looking approach to agribusiness industry trends, this HBS Executive Education program will help your company make the right moves in a complex, volatile business environment. Providing relevant lessons in the classroom that yield a broad view of the global food and agribusiness system, the program will help your company to:
- Succeed in an increasingly global agribusiness landscape
- Improve its ability to respond to market change
- Create a global footprint by expanding more effectively into new countries and regions
- Create new organizational structures that strengthen market position
- Build strong alliances—both across business functions and with other companies
- Influence the future of the industry by contributing to discussions among top players
Taking Your Skills to the Next Level
World-renowned HBS faculty will lead you and an accomplished group of global peers in an exploration of the vital chain that brings food, feed, fiber, and fuel from the farm to the consumer. This program will help you to:
- Lead your company more strategically through insight into industry dynamics
- Understand emerging issues that could change how you do business
- Identify opportunities for growth in both domestic and international markets
- Gain insight into the increasingly important role China will play across all segments of the industry
- Balance short-range strategies and long-term goals in the context of overarching industry trends
- Drive innovation and change in your organization to address an evolving customer base, rising competitors, and emerging opportunities
- Explore how other companies are successfully implementing best practices and new strategies for growth
- Strengthen your network by making new connections with peers from across the agribusiness industry
To ensure the most comprehensive learning experience, this discussion-based seminar is offered in both English and Chinese with translation. Participants will preselect either Chinese or English for their classroom materials.
About the Agribusiness Seminar at Harvard Business School
The Agribusiness Seminar is a premier forum that brings together senior decision makers from every type of industry organization—including producers, manufacturers, marketers, retailers, policy makers, and service providers. Because the industry is constantly changing, the curriculum is reinvented each year to spotlight the most current innovations and challenges. That's why many participants attend yearly to explore the latest trends and to network with other industry leaders.